December RandomKIT - Christmas Sweets

This month, we are celebrating Christmas sweets of all kinds.
Candy canes, chocolate, peppermints, peanut brittle, fudge, cookies, gingerbread, and hot cocoa are some of the sweets my family enjoys.
Any Christmas sweet that is a part of your Christmas celebrations in any form you choose to use it.
It can be part of a title, a cover picture, or just a character enjoying the sweet in a book scene, or you enjoying the sweet yourself while reading the book of your choice.
Merry Christmas and merry reading, but don't forget the merry wiki .

This will be fun!

Love it! Not sure what I'll read (oddly, as much as I love Christmas, I rarely have Xmas holiday reads on my tbr), but I love the idea of this one!

I wish I hadn't read A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kindfisher earlier this year because there's a gingerbread man on the cover. Recommended if someone's looking for a book.

>4 dudes22: Oh, thanks for pointing that out! I have that one on my kindle (and there is the gingerbread man indeed), but I wouldn't have thought of it. Otherwise, I have a few Christmas titles that might fit, but good to know that this one is an option, too.

When I was child one stocking filler we got every Christmas was an orange, so I am going to choose one of the Orange Prize shortlisted books for 1998, The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett.

>4 dudes22: I second that recommendation, it is excellent fun.

I'm completely at a loss for this one. But thinking cap on and a TBR pile rummage should find something.

>6 Robertgreaves: - We always got an orange too. The Orange Prize would certainly give me more options. All the ones in my TBR pile are part of series and not where I'm at.

This is a great idea, and lots of fun. I am sure I can find something in the piles of books at my house. I like the graphic too.

I think I'll read either The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar or Murder Without Icing.

I have a few children's/YA selections from my shelves that I can read. I will choose at a later date.

I think I'll read Real Sugar is Hard to Find by Sim Kern--I've been anxious to read more of their work ever since reading Depart, Depart!, and this seems like the perfect chance.

I am planning on reading a few Christmas stories in December, but the one that fits this theme the best is The Christmas Cake Cafe by Sue Watson.

A couple of possibilities:

The Plum Thicket by Janice Holt Giles - my mother would always make plum pudding for Christmas
The Pumpkin Eater by Penelope Mortimer - pumpkin pie
Christmas Pudding by Nancy Mitford - a variant on plum pudding

Although I gave up on Joanne Fluke's cozy mystery series, there are a few that would work here. If I can get to it, I might read Christmas Caramel Murder.

I have several books I am contemplating this month. I know I am reading The Candymaker's Gift: A Legend of the Candy Cane

>15 dudes22: Roger that! I got tired of her endless waffling between boyfriends and the tiring details. Maybe I need to give her another try.

I read Sourdough Jack's Cookery by Jack Mabee. What a find! I got this book for $1 at the Friends of the Library sale. Dated 1959, this is a book about all things sourdough. What I really like is that there are 10 pages of history on the movement west and the role sour dough played in that movement. Also, stapled to this "recipe" book is a dried packet of sour dough starter (yeast, sugar, whole wheat flour). My edition is dated 1959 and is in excellent condition. There are about 20 recipes for all things sour dough and then about 10 pages of recipes for real "Americana" food as the title implies: Bean Hole Beans, Bannock, Cornish Pasties, Hangtown Fry, Trapper Stew, and Split Pea Soup. 39 pages 5 stars CAT: December Randomkit--Christmas Sweets (there are a few recipes for sweet pastries from the sourdough mix)

Reading ahead--I read On the Way to Christmas which included three novellas. The last of the three featured a bakery and of course all kinds of goodies.

Oh, it looks like there are chocolates on the cover of:
The Wife's Tale / Lori Lansens

That's one I was also considering for AlphaKIT (W), so that works out nicely!

If someone is looking for a sweet and very christmassy contemporary romance for this, I recommend His Christmas Wish by Melissa McClone. The characters bake lots of cookies and gingerbread houses in this novel. It is currently for free on kindle. I discovered it through the link Tess shared a week or so ago.

>21 MissBrangwen: Thanks for the tip! I just downloaded it.

>21 MissBrangwen: Thank you from me too! Another download. Romance is not my usual reading but "sweet and christmassy" did the trick!

>23 VivienneR: "Free" is another point in favor of this one.

>24 LadyoftheLodge: OTOH I have found many free books to be worth what I paid for them

>25 Robertgreaves: Yes, I have had that experience.

My library hold came in before I was expecting it, so I've finished Christmas Caramel Murder by Joanne Fluke already.

Claiming Hogfather for this. It's a riff on Father Christmas in a typically Pratchett way.

>28 Helenliz: helenliz
Good call. At a stretch thief of time might be a contender too. weapon grade amounts of chocolate at least.
I decided not to do rereads as part of the challenge, otherwise hogfather is a great idea.

It wasn't the cover of the one I read, but one of the covers for this book has Laura Secord chocolates

The Wife's Tale / Lori Lansens
3.5 stars

Mary is obese and much of her thought is taken up with her weight and food. On their 25th anniversary, her husband “Gooch” (Jimmy Gooch) has left her with no notice. He just didn’t come home. Mary, although she has never or rarely left her small hometown in Ontario, takes it upon herself to follow clues first to Toronto, then to California, to try to find him.

The first half of the book was hard to read with all the moaning about her weight and food, etc. But maybe that is accurate for some people battling obesity? It’s nice to see Mary become somewhat independent (with the help of people in the small town in California she ends up in). The ending was left a little bit open, but I suppose in doing that, that might mean something, too.

Your link goes to a different book.

>31 dudes22: Thank you for letting me know! I will fix it.

I read a small regional book, Santa Is Coming to Oklahoma, since I live in Oklahoma. It fits the category because Santa eats the cookies at all the houses and the reindeer get all the carrots.

I have read Twisted Tea Christmas by Laura Childs. The cover shows a tea table with Christmas decorations and plates if goodies.

I have finished Maroni, Mord und Hallelujah, a book with four Christmas mystery stories. One of them drafts a police offer into the jury of a Christmas cookie baking competition.

Read A Cup of Christmas Tea by Tom Hegg a poem about an invitation from an elderly aunt.

January's RandomKit has been posted here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/346541

Finished Real Sugar is Hard to Find, and it was fantastic. Full review written. If you're open to short stories, and enjoy speculative and/or eco-fiction, you should take a look.

I listened to A Jane Austen Christmas - Regency Christmas Traditions by Maria Grace, which features many recipes from the regency area, and also describes the traditions of preparing the food, table manners, menus etc.

I read Silent Bite by David Rosenfelt. While his stories are entertaining, this wasn't a Christmas story, nor was it his traditional dog story.

I have completed The Christmas Cake Cafe and it was perfect for this Cat! Although a little formulated, it covers all the bases required for a holiday romance.

When Elves Attack by Tim Dorsey
A funny and ribald account of a pair of criminals at Christmas. Typical Dorsey humour. My version was an audiobook with a brilliant reading by Oliver Wyman.

One last read for the month. Snow Many Treats to Share by Kat Stano Saura, a book about families sharing their traditional treats.

Writing a Wrong by Betty Hechtman has the main character trying out both coffee drinks and a delicious mint chocolate cake from two different potential clients. I prefer tea to coffee, but chocolate mint is my favorite flavor!

I read several Christmas books this month. An Irish Country Christmas by Patrick Taylor includes Christmas recipes at the end by Mrs Kincaid, the housekeeper. And I re-read A Christmas Carol on audiobook; the descriptions of Christmas goodies by Dickens is mouth-watering, to say the least.

I also read The World of Thrush Green by Miss Read. Although not a Christmas book per se, this is a nonfiction book in which Miss Read gives the background of how and why she started the Thrush Green books, with excerpts from the novels. Included are recipes that are "favorites" of the characters, including Molly's Sticky Gingerbread, cooked in the Aga but updated for today's ovens.

Thank you to everyone who participated this month. I hope your holidays and your reading were sweet and rewarding.